Student academic achievement has a direct impact on decisions about grades, placement, and advancement, as well as educational curriculum and funding. This consideration underscores the importance of using different types of assessments to obtain useful information about student understanding and reflect on educational strategies. The assessment plan shown below is for an online “Fundamentals of Crisis Negotiation” Course and was developed to help clarify learning outcomes as part of the instructional design process.
Learning Assessment Plan: “Fundamentals of Crisis Negotiation”
This online criminal justice course provides students with information concerning the law enforcement response to a crisis incident, however, there is not an opportunity for practical application of the crisis negotiation process. Accordingly, the assessment of student learning requires an evaluation of the manner in which students can articulate the knowledge learned through class readings, instructor presentations, and interaction with peers. The overall assessment process is designed to ensure that the learning objectives support the terminal course objective as well as ensuring that evaluation processes are aligned in a manner that reinforces one another. Accordingly, as discussed below, a variety of assessment methods are utilized to ensure that students are capable of analyzing information, solving problems and communicating effectively.
Blog Entries
Students will maintain a blog and enter a 100-200 word summary of key points and issues that were included in the readings and instructor's presentations (e.g., PowerPoint, Video). Blog entries are more informal in nature and, therefore, are provided with a low percentage of the overall point value for the course grade. The grading rubric for blogs is based upon student participation, focus upon the instructional topic, and adherence to the identified word count. Blog entries are utilized with the learning objectives identified below.
Module 1 - Objective 1: Identify the primary goal of the law enforcement crisis negotiation team when responding to a crisis situation.
Module 2 - Objective 1: Identify the three primary functions of a crisis negotiation team during any crisis negotiation situation.
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Module 3 - Objective 1: Identify the command position that is responsible for making the ultimate decision for resolving a crisis negotiation situation.
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Module 4 - Objective 1: Identify the three primary principles of the law enforcement crisis negotiation effort.
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Module 5 - Objective 1: Identify the two most dangerous phases of the crisis negotiation process.
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Module 6 - Objective 1: Identify why a suicidal individual may request that friends or relatives be brought to the scene of a crisis negotiation situation.
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The purpose of using blogs as an assessment tool is to provide a method for monitoring student comprehension through the expression of their thoughts on a given topic. By reviewing blog entries, the instructor is better able to identify those students who have acquired the requisite knowledge to proceed to the next learning module. More importantly, the review of blog entries allows the instructor to identify and provide remediation for those students who may not have fully acquired the knowledge associated with a learning objective. The informal nature of blogging activities allows the instructor to provide feedback that is more focused upon challenging high achievers while providing encouragement to students struggling in their learning process.
Discussion Posts
Students will respond to instructor and peer discussion questions by providing an online post of 100-200 words that is related to a given learning objective. The student must support their work by incorporating information from the weekly reading assignment as well as at least one reference source beyond the assigned reading. Additionally, students are required to post a 100- 200 word response to the discussion posts of at least two of their peers. The response post minimum requirement does not include student replies within their discussion thread. The student response to discussion questions is formal in nature and must be cited in APA style. The grading rubric for discussion posts focuses predominantly upon the student’s: expression of knowledge of an objective; supporting citations for their response; manner in which they interface with peers; and adherence to the identified word count. Discussion questions are utilized with the learning objectives identified below.
Module 1 - Objective 2: Explain the two types of crisis negotiation situations that are most often confronted by law enforcement.
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Module 3 - Objective 2: Explain the division of command responsibility for the tactical and negotiation elements during a crisis negotiation situation.
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Module 6 - Objective 2: Explain why the noticeable absence of substantive demands by an individual is a primary concern to the crisis negotiator.
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The purpose of using discussion questions as an assessment tool is to provide a method for evaluating the students assimilation of information associated with an objective. Additionally, the use of discussion questions provides a method of encouraging affiliation and socialization between students. Discussion questions are not used every week during this course in order to provide a balance in the use of assessment methods as well as to not overwhelm a student during weeks that contain similar assignments such a summary essay. Instructor feedback for discussion posts is focused on: assessing comprehension of an objective; identifying and critiquing a student's strength and weaknesses; targeting areas for improvement; and reiterating the intent of an objective for students who may not have completely expressed all of the knowledge attributes associated with a learning objective.
Case Study Summary
Students will observe various videos of law enforcement crisis negotiations that are between fifteen and thirty minutes in length (there is no limit to the number of views allowed for a given video). The student is then required to provide an online 100-200 word summary that critiques the activity associated with a given objective. The student must support their work by incorporating information from the weekly reading assignment as well as at least two reference sources beyond the assigned reading. Additionally, students are required to post a 100-200 word response to the case study summary of at least one of their peers. The response requirement for a peer case study summary does not include student replies within their summary thread. Case summaries are formal in nature and are required to be cited in APA style. The grading rubric for a case summary focuses predominantly on the student’s ability to identify unique elements associated with established negotiation concepts and principles which were observed during the video presentation. Additionally, grading is focused upon the manner in which the student: connects their summary to a given objective; provides supporting citations for their response; interfaces with peers; and adheres to the identified word count. Case study summaries are utilized with the learning objectives identified below.
Module 2 - Objective 2: Compare and contrast the basic responsibilities of the primary and secondary negotiator during a crisis negotiation situation.
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Module 4 - Objective 2: Explain the importance of suspect containment prior to beginning negotiation efforts.
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The purpose of this case study summaries as an assessment tool is to provide a method for the student to function on a higher cognitive level by: identifying examples or illustrations of a negotiation concept or principle; and determine how each element of the negotiation process function together. Additionally, the summary requires that the student comment on how the case study relates to the information provided in the reading assignment and instructor's weekly presentation (e.g., video, PowerPoint). Video presentations of law enforcement crisis negotiation events are used throughout course. However, the use of a case study summary as an assessment tool is limited in order to provide a balance in the use of assessment methods as well as to not overwhelm a student during weeks that contain similar assignments such as response to an instructor discussion question. Similarly, given the word length of a case study summary, a student is only required to respond to one peer summary instead of two responses that are required for a discussion question. Instructor feedback for discussion posts is focused upon: assessing as students comprehension of an objective; identifying and critiquing a student's strength and weaknesses; targeting areas for improvement; and reiterating the intent of an objective for students who may not have completely expressed all of the knowledge attributes associated with a learning objective.
PowerPoint Presentation
The student is required to develop a PowerPoint slide presentation with a minimum of 10 slides that provides talking point slides and supported by text notes for each slide. The student must support the presentation by incorporating information from the weekly reading and instructor video presentation. No reference sources beyond the assigned reading are requires and, therefore, the text for a slide is not required to be formatted in APA style. The learning objective used for developing the PowerPoint presentation involves the four basic crisis phases experienced by a suspect during crisis negotiation situation. This multiple part learning objective is more conductive to the development of a bulleted presentation by a student. The PowerPoint presentation is submitted to the instructor and is not made available for review by a student’s peers. The grading rubric for case summary focuses predominantly upon the student’s ability to connect their presentation to the objective. The completion of the presentation is not graded on the construction of PowerPoint slides (e.g., text size, text and background contrast, the use of graphics). However, the grading rubric does include an element associated with the manner in which the student transitions their presentation between slides. The use of a PowerPoint presentation is associated with the learning objective identified below.
Module 5 - Objective 2: Explain four basic crisis phases experienced by a suspect during crisis negotiation situation.
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The purpose of using a PowerPoint presentation as an assessment method is to provide the student with an opportunity to express their learning of the subject matter in a manner than can be used as a potential education tool for peers in their current or future careers. Similar to a discussion question, instructor feedback for the PowerPoint presentation is focused upon: assessing as students comprehension of an objective; identifying and critiquing a student's strength and weaknesses; targeting areas for improvement; and reiterating the intent of an objective for students who may not have completely expressed all of the knowledge attributes associated with a learning objective. Instructor feedback for the construction of PowerPoint slides is used to target areas for improvement and communicate best practices in the use of presentation tools.
Final Project – Essay and Training Aid
The student will develop a minimum 1000 word essay that provides an broad overview of the law enforcement crisis negotiating process while being predominantly focused upon the actions of the initial responding officer to a crisis situation. The introduction and body of the essay are developed as part of do and connect activities throughout the course. This provides the student with an opportunity to not be overwhelmed with having to complete the final project during the last week of the online course.
Using the completed essay, the student will then develop a one page bulleted handout that could be used to provide first responding officers to a barricaded suspect or hostage situation with the actions to take until the arrival of a trained crisis negotiator. The formal essay must be cited in APA style and formatted to include an introductory paragraph, topic summary paragraphs, and a closing paragraph. The student is allowed to incorporate information from their previous discussion posts and blog entries. The essay and training aid are associated with the learning objectives provided below.
Module 7 - Objective 1: Discuss the importance of the three primary responsibilities of a first responding officer to a barricaded suspect or hostage situation.
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Module 7 - Objective 2: Relate why the first few minutes of contact with a suspect in crisis will have a bearing on the ultimate success or failure of the efforts by a crisis negotiation team.
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The final project essay and training aid comprises a significant percentage of the students overall course grade. Accordingly, the grading rubric for case summary focuses upon a higher cognitive level that assesses the ability of the student to generate a product that displays a logical structure and demonstrates topic mastery in the absence of a formal examination process.